Emporia State biology faculty, students busy with presentations

October 13, 2011

Students and faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at Emporia State University have been busy presenting projects and having their findings published.“Ascending,” a photo taken by Dr. Eric Yang, associate professor of biology, earned first place in the inaugural Kansas Academy of Science photo contest. The photo of water fowl taking off from Melvern Lake was published in the recent issue of Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. It can be seen online at http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1660/062.114.0116.

During the meeting at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center near Great Bend, Jaster was awarded Best Student Paper for presentation of his master’s research, “Patterns of Territory Distribution and Paring Success in Henslow’s Sparrows Breeding in Restored Grasslands,” which was co-authored with Jensen and Andrew Forbes of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Dalisio’s presentation, “Song Dialects in Alpine-Breeding Songbirds of the Rocky Mountains,” included results from his master’s thesis and was co-authored with Jensen and Timothy Parker.

Jensen took another group of students to the Central Plains Society of Mammalogists annual meeting at Doane College in Crete, Neb. Attending were undergraduate students Kevin Blake, John Kraft, Travis Ratliff and Andrew Rutter and graduate student Nathan Holoubek. During the meeting, Jensen was installed as president of the society.

Finally, a chapter from Bill House’s master’s thesis will be published in the upcoming issue of Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. House, who earned his master’s degree in biology in 2009, co-authored the manuscript with Ian Nall, who also earned his master’s in biology in 2009, and Dr. R. Brent Thomas, professor of biology and chair of the department.